Italy – On the steps of Don Bosco and Br. Zatti, SDB: the pilgrimage of Salesian Coadjutors

08 October 2022

(ANS - Rome) - After the morning of celebration and festivity experienced in the Vatican together with the Pope and the Rector Major, and in anticipation of the solemn canonization ceremony of Artemide Zatti, scheduled for Sunday morning, on the afternoon of Saturday, October 8, about 650 Salesian coadjutors from all over the world filled the streets of Rome to discover together, as brothers consecrated in the same charism, the places of Don Bosco in the capital of Italy.

"Don Bosco & Zatti Saints in Rome" is the motto of the pilgrimage, organized by the commission in charge of the events for Zatti's canonization. Thanks to the collaboration of Salesian as guides, the participants, divided into language groups, were able to create an itinerary through Don Bosco's dwellings in Rome, the places he visited most, the possible Salesian homes he sought in the city... In fact, the Piedmontese saint needed to make several trips to the city, with stays sometimes short, sometimes even entire months, and it has been estimated that he spent about 200 days there.

The itineraries developed acquainted the Salesian Brothers who had come from all over the world with some well-known and lesser-known stops for the general public of tourists or pilgrims who daily flock to the center of Rome: Via del Quirinale, Via Sistina, Piazza del Popolo, Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, San Pietro in Vincoli...

Central hub and mandatory stop for all was the complex of the "Sacred Heart" work in Rome, where the Roman Camerette of Don Bosco are based and where the Saint of Youth wrote his famous Letter of May 1884 in which he urged the Salesians to remain ever present among the youth.

"We are having an experience of the Church as a united whole thanks to the canonization of Zatti, I am very happy to be able to participate in these events," testified a Salesian coadjutor who came from Brazil. "Today Zatti reminds us of the importance of the care we must have for one another, as he had care for the sick." 

"Certainly the message and example I take from Zatti is to live daily life in communion with the Lord. Those small actions that he did toward the poor are an inspiration to do the same with our kids, with the people who are close to us, those similar gestures of charity and mercy, which keep us close to the Lord," echoes another Salesian coadjutor, Italian. Who then adds, "It is a unique emotion to see hundreds of coadjutors all together, many coming for the first time here in Rome and then in Turin... And it makes one realize how much the Salesian charism has expanded in the world also thanks to the figure of the Salesian coadjutor." 

Finally, Br. Dominic Nguyen Nam, SDB, Salesian coadjutor and the Rector Major's Delegate for Past Pupils and Salesian Cooperators, concluded, "It's really a wonderful opportunity for me, a Salesian coadjutor like him, like Artemide Zatti. When we see a Salesian coadjutor, who lived a simple, humble life, but who in daily life sanctified every action he performed by dedicating himself to the poor and the sick, we can glimpse there an open path for other Salesian coadjutors like me as well, a path to follow, imitating his example."

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